Shop Press for Forging??

H

Higgy

Joined
Dec 31, 2002
Messages
79
How is this done? Is this a new technique? Anyone here who does this, and would you be so kind to highlight this for me?

Thanks!

Jeff
 
You take the material, and right amount heat, add ENOUGH pressure, and we are talking tonnage, and you = billet! I was a press operator where we took high explosives in powder form, added heat and tons of pressure, and ended up with a solid billet that was the missle or projectile warhead explosive. I guess what guys are doing now instead of pounding the hot metal to forge a blade they are just pressing the hot steel with a press. Heck of a lot easier,quicker,and quieter.Dave Larson, a fellow maker and great guy, picked up a couple of large electric motors and I understand is going to make a press. He is probably going to use the motors for the hydraulic pumps.I should have asked him about this when he was at my place last Sat.,but time was too short for everything to be said and done.Dave's e-mail address is dclarsen@mchsi.com and I'm sure Dave would be more than happy to fill you in.
 
John,

How much tonnage are we talking about, and do you press the entire billet at once? Is there anyone's sites which may have some pics of this being done?
 
Higgy, I worked with 300 to 500 ton presses, but you would not need these kinds of pressures to press a hot steel billet, I wouldn't think. I'll ask some engineers at work tomorrow to get some better figures for you, and hopefully catch one of the press millwrights and quiz some info. Are you wanting to forge/press damascus? I assume this is what you are working toward. Also, why don't you post your e-mail address so I can just send the info direct to you.
 
20 tons and up is good.
You don't need to press the whole billet at once you can take chunks. The more powerfull you press the bigger chunks you can do at once or bigger billets and less heats. Ideally you would have different shapes of dies to get different effects. One big flat set for making the billet flat and even over the whole surface. One set that are rounded in one direction like cylinders for drawing, and misc shapes for making patterns.
 
If I under stand you correctly you're talking about a reg. shop type press?
20 ton or so hand pumping??

If so by the time you get it pumped down to the steel it will be to cold to work well if at all..
you're going to be forever heating it..
to be more effective you'd press like 25% of it then do another 25%
once you have the 100% done or if done fast enough and depending on the
size of the billet type steel and the heat you're at.
a shop press would be way slow.

50 - 60 cycles a min at 30+ ton
would be nice to use..:) not that I know a lot about it:D
 
Well I'll be darned. Funny thing is, i been thinking of making my own 50 ton press with an Enerpac cylinder and air-operated hydraulic pump. I have seen these in action, and you can really get that ram speed going at a good rate. If you custom-built your own press, you could really make it well-suited to forging. I think I will explore this more. Thanks, everyone for some good input on this.

Now, one more question! Do ANY of you think a shop press of sizable caliber would preclude the necessity to ever get a power hammer? All the smithing I have done until now has been strictly by hand, so I know not the joys (curse?) of using a powered rig so I am totally unbiased between the two. Anyone think one is better than the other?

Peace,

Jeff
 
Jeff, Look in the CKD Forums in Gene Osborns and Bob Warners section. There is a thread there that will guide you to getting all the info you to build a hydraulic press, from start to finish, By Bob Warner.
Roland
 
Higgy, The only press related person I could catch at work last night was a millwright and he wasn't very helpful as far as useful info for what you was asking for. Our hyd. fluid presses' top rams come down pretty quick onto the bottom dies, so I don't think the time element would bw a problem. Electrical heat on your bottom die is a normal function, which would help. too. What I wanted to know from the millwright was tonnage, and like I said before, what tonnage operation we are asking is much less than the operation my workplace is accustomed to working with.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top